Find the Next Hanley Ramirez
Want a sure-fire way to fast-track the Miami Marlins? Find the next Hanley Ramirez.
More to the point, they need to find the franchise’s fifth NL Rookie of the Year winner.
If we throw out the fake fire sale of 2012, the 2006 iteration of the Miami Marlins were the last team to swim in the same waters this 2018 club finds themselves in. Projected to be terrible, all that team did was blow the doors off every projection levied in their direction. Twenty games under .500 in May, they played like the best team in baseball the rest of the season, reaching two games over .500 before smashing into the rookie wall over the final two weeks.
Confidence was back. A stunning six Miami Marlins received NL ROY votes, with three Fish ranking in the top four — winning the award? That’d be Hanley. Fans were floored.
That being said, there’s nothing to suggest this 2018 club is going to pull off being that prolific. Despite Hanley’s heroics, the backbone of the 2006 club was a starting rotation that had five starters win double-digit games. Four of those hurlers were rookies. Meanwhile, the 2018 Miami Marlins are returning a lot of familiar faces to the mound. To the lineup even; Cabrera was the lone holdover position player from 2005. Realistically, we’re looking at no more than four opportunities total for a fresh face to make a name for themselves in their debut campaign.
One of those four stepping up and being great would go a long way towards putting fans’ minds at ease. That would serve as proof that this new ownership group, with this new plan, knows what they’re doing. By no means does every prospect brought in this offseason need to pan out.
But considering all the star power that just went out the door, at least one of them needs to, and needs to do so this season.